A Weekly Conversation with the Voice

October 2014

10/31/2014

Judgment is as common as breathing and often goes unnoticed by the person judging. Of course, the persons being judged feel the bruises and nicks of judgment.

The function of judgment is to constrain, narrow and limit your experience. It is the second great limiter of experience – second only to fear.

When you release the burden of judgment your experience changes – you naturally experience more possibilities. And when you experience more possibilities you are nourished. Ask yourself this simple question am I nourished? Nourished means I am excited about what I am learning; I feel deeply appreciated and I feel appreciation towards others; I breathe deeply, feeling connected and whole.

Remember the principle – Listening is the foundation of all possibilities? Releasing the Burden of Judgment is also the foundation for all possibilities. As you might say, these are both strong medicines capable of healing wounds and introducing transformation in both relationship and communities. How is this really possible? – You might ask. How could listening and releasing the burden of judgment be such big movements capable of creating change?

Well judging someone is a move to make him or her less-than. Less-than who they really are, less-than you or your tribe or community, in some cases less-than human, and in still other cases not human at all – a thing, an object, a possession.

Visit these examples and ponder them:

A tribe of children valuing sameness says of another child “You are weird, not one of us, not invited, excluded. We are better-than you.” This child is teased, lightly bullied, and made to feel bad about herself.

Half way across the world a young girl is not allowed to go to school – the community says girls should not be educated. The girl is told she has no voice and to hide her gifts.

Travel around the globe again and another girl is sold into slavery and she is an object, a thing.

Travel around the globe again and a sister in a wealthy family is excluded from the family business simply because she is not male.

Remove the judgments and any one of these girls can become a leader in her community. Remove the judgments and each girl develops her voice and discovers her gifts. When she shares her voice and gifts everyone is richer

Consider this story:

Once there was a merchant who had three children. The oldest son was passionate about drawing. His father discouraged this art, offering no options but to learn the skills of importing and exporting. His middle sister was passionate about the business, good both with people and numbers. Yet she was rejected – allowed only to be in the shop. One day she realized another merchant was cheating her father. She went to her father and showed him the numbers – he flew into a rage, warning her never to come into the office again. The youngest son became very sick at age five. His loving mother nursed him back to health but captured the same disease and died 3 months later. The father blamed the youngest son for his wife’s death and could not abide seeing him. Many times the sister tried to make peace, but the father’s judgments about the youngest son held. The youngest son accepted the guilt and blame and was prone to dark moods. In his later years he rebelled, left the family, and became a thief.

Whatever the situation, judgments, especially of children by anyone including other children, weigh heavy, wound and interfere with the natural process of human growth.When these judgments are lifted and burdens are surrendered incredible opportunities open and present themselves.

Listening and Releasing the Burden of Judgment sit within a circle flowing into one another. Listening is almost impossible when someone is thick with judgment. The energetic definition of Listening is to be connected with all that is around you. The two quickest ways to change the nature of your experience is to Listen and Release the Burden of Judgment. When you listen more you allow yourself to experience more connection. This is deeply satisfying more connection.

Given how much time is devoted to judging (hiding connection) the journey of life is often described as a journey to experience more connection. A wise question asks – where are you on your journey of connection? Do not underestimate the side effect of judging. It is draining and debilitating to live in a manner that is disconnected. So little nourishment takes places. This is why listening is so powerful – to invite someone to speak and say “take your time, tell me your story, in whatever way you would like – I am here to listen” – this is an incredible gift to offer.

Often the first step in judging less is to soften your judgments enough to begin to listen a bit, allowing for other possibilities. A second way to release judgments is to begin to see the whole person as best you can.

10/17/2014

Stop, pause, listen, breathe, listen more. Are you leading a better life? The learning possible from this question comes from the answer and how you went about answering.

Consider the following: 1) This is not a yes or no question. Whose answer did you give? It is your answer or someone else’s?

2) How did you naturally define “you?” How big is your “you?” Who did you include in “you”?

3) Are you leading a better life is an energetic, fractal question. For example, in the question asked, “You” means – you, your children, your family, friends, neighborhood, community, across communities, nature, and all the children. Why all the children – because this is a future paced question and children are the future the only future!

4) Another full plump word is “better.” What does better mean to you and how did you learn about better? “Better is focus or area of attention. Does better involve being in-learning?

5) “Living” is the nature of your movement, how you are walking in you life and how are you walking with others. Are you taking the next step?

6) If you reflect on this question from a stance of matter, what emerges? If you reflect on this question from a stance of energy, what emerges?

Now — no one can tell another person what to do. This is the principle of Free Will. So, no one can tell another person if they are leading a better life.

We, the collective supporting humankind, offer the nine jewels of human relationships – let this sit side by side as you reflect on the question – Are you leading a better life? Which of the nine jewels do you resonate with? Would you want to include any of them in your exploration of “better?” The jewels are described below.

There are nine jewels of human relationship brilliantly reflecting your true nature. We call them jewels because of the space inside, as they are capable of multiple facets and expressions. Consider these well.

Jewel 1: Fundamental to the nature of human relationships are bold, warm, clear, flows of energy being exchanged. Pay attention to the flows in your relationships what qualities do they express? Are they warm? Are they bold? Are they clear? Most flows are restricted in some manner.

Jewel 2: Fundamental to the nature of human relationships is nourishment. Everyone is nourished. Consider how well do you nourish others? What is your theory about what nourishes people?

Jewel 3: Fundamental to the nature of human relationships is being in-learning together. This means to base the foundation of your relationships on being learning partners. Frequently in today’s world being a learning partner means that you are helping others to develop their voice and discover their gifts, for this has not occurred in childhood.

Jewel 4: Fundamental to the nature of human relationships is healing. Healing is a natural part of growth. Walking in your lives there are many emotional, scrapes, bruises, and wounds. Left unattended they are buried, restrictions form and limit people in how they form relationships. This causes all forms of narrowing.

Jewel 5: Fundamental to the nature of human relationships is to speak from the heart and speak the truth. Human voice is wonderfully clear in its expression whether through art, words, or music. Everyone listens when you speak your truth and talk from the heart.

Jewel 6: Fundamental to the nature of being human is appreciation. This is a profound state of being and allows experience to grow from qualities not judgment.

Jewel 7: Fundamental to the nature of being human is to be of service. This is a profound state of being. There is a deep appreciation for the opportunity to be of service, to grow one’s soul and spirit. Here there is movement without attachment to outcome or to receipt of gratitude.

Jewel 8: Fundamental to the nature of human relationships is to experience a profound connection among and across all living beings and systems. This stretches far beyond relationships with other human beings and expands to all living forms, which share the earth today – to the planet itself, to sprit which exists beyond the body. To experience all of this, you are also connected to yourself.

Jewel 9:Fundamental to the nature of human relationships is to share gifts. Each person has a gift to share that nourishes, lights, heals, helps, delights, renews. Have you discovered your gift?

So if this seems too long or too much to remember or absorb and you would like to explore “living,” by trying something new — simply start with Jewel 2: Nourishment and Jewel 3: Being Learning Partners. These two alone will start a transformation in all your relationships.

Remember, no one can tell another person if they are leading a better life.

10/11/2014

Within each and every person there is a spark, called the Core Light. It is a tool of human resilience. Many of you have lost touch with this spark. It is a perfect form of energy with only one purpose – healing. The core light is akin, in the simplest way, to your natural physical healing system and it is much more. The core light is an energy generator and amplifier, which transforms the energy of wounds. You can develop your core light primarily by using it to heal your own emotional wounds. The more you use it the stronger it gets.

The world is a bit chaotic, rough and tumble. Emotional bumps, scraps, bruises are common. There are also many people who more deeply wounded. These wounds impair the person’s ability to live in the world in harmony with themselves and others. The core light is very effective at healing these both small and large wounds.

So how well, how bright, how strong does your core light shine? Do you have a sense of this? How well are you at healing your emotional aches and pains past and present? With simple emotional upsets your core light, if you can let it work, can automatically heal your wounds. You often call this resilience.

While it is a conversation of many more pages, let me say to you that emotions are energy. Emotions exist on multiple levels and their effect and impact occurs on multiple levels. The nature of wounds is energetic and many wounds involve emotions. Yes, most wounds involve an intrusion or disruption of energy. Unless healed or released this energy is stored and begins to affect your experience of new situations and people.

The Practice:

Pick an experience from your recent past, (it is best to start simple). Replay this situation in your mind, until you sense and feel some of the energy - the emotions of the past (anger, hurt, sadness, general discomfort). Once you have identified a feeling associated with the memory, see if you can imagine where in your body this emotion is located. Do not worry if you cannot find it. Use your core light to heal this emotional wound or upset. Imagine the core light bathing this area or scar with a warm, medium-bright light – a nice light-pastel color of any shade is fine. If you can, hold this image for about five minutes. If not, do not worry. Do this twice a day.

The first and foremost way to develop our core light is to use it. The core light never tires nor grows fatigued. It is an ever-renewable source of healing energy. Think about unhealed emotional events as pockets of trapped dark energy. It literally converts the energy of trapped emotional pains to a flowing useful energy.

A second practice or use of the core light is to bring about equilibrium in intense emotional situations by converting the negative energy. This opens up the possibility of new choices and behavior. When you become disturbed and have a strong or intense reaction to something or someone, that is, a reaction more-than the situation requires ­– it means that you are both in the present and the past. You have tapped an unresolved situation with stored energy. The Core Light is wonderful to use to restore balance.

Follow the same practice as before. It is not necessary to “understand what happened” or where the extra energy came from. In times of emotional imbalance you can simply think or say, “I need help from my core light.” In that instant the core light activates and begins converting the intense negative energy into supportive energy. Of course, this is not a miracle cure making everything perfect instantly. However, you will return to a state of greater balance.

The core light is unique among all the gifts and manifestations of the light. It is a unique energetic organ whose sole purpose is healing. The core light initially evolves when the pattern of events is moving in the direction of the inevitable. This is typically when the fundamental flow of growth and healing (mental, physical, spiritual) is being stymied or distorted in a deep manner on a planetary level.

10/04/2014

What you believe about the world, being human, how things work in-relationship makes a difference. When someone is ready often a big idea can percolate and bubble into wide sweeping changes. Now if this happens all the credit goes to the person(s) making the change, not to the idea or the person who offered the idea.

Across Ideas to Ponder and Practice there are ideas of all size and shapes, invitations for reflection and action. This conversation offers some of the very large ideas for consideration to stimulate your pondering about your own big ideas.

Everything is energy.

Now the intersection between belief and action is called cultivation. What you cultivate reveals the nature of your relationship with the big idea. Now someone may read the big idea Everything is Energy and say – “Yes, of course, I believe this.” However, until cultivation is observed we know very little about this person’s relationship with the idea. Cultivation is what grows in your personal garden, patch, territory, neighborhood, home turf, or living space.

When someone has an active relationship with a “big idea it shapes focus or attention. Remember people are most happy, most satisfied when the space is open and they experience possibilities. How open a space do your big ideas create? What happens when you cultivate the big idea – Everything is Energy?

Cultivating Everything is Energy will focus your attention on the qualities present or absent in situations and relationships. For example you see a person as a whole collection of qualities and light not their sex, age, color of skin, style of dress. You are much more drawn to listening, sensing and noticing than ranking, judging and evaluating. Intuition and sensing become valid ways of making decisions. Healing engages the energetic systems (for example, eastern medicine).

In contrast, consider a familiar, widely held big picture idea that is cultivated by many people and communities. Everything is matter, or if you prefer physical. Here the emphasis is on physical cultivation – appearance, body, land, money, attractiveness, ownership, quantity of things Competition is plentiful and many worship this specific form in both work and play. When cultivating the physical, fear emerges, just as the weeds grow clogging the garden. The form of fear varies, but most frequent is fear of loss.

Consider another large idea that when cultivated transforms your relationships, how you experience of the world and how you express yourself.

Fundamental to human nature there are Five Profound States of Being – 1) Respect, 2) Appreciation, 3) in-Learning, 4) Service, and 5) Holding the Whole. Every major wisdom tradition across the planet speaks to the power of one or more of these profound states. They may be described differently and various paths offered to participate. However, these profound states of being require no training for participation and experience. They are your birthright and everyone experiences some fractal big or small of these states at different times. They are called profound because when you experience the world from one or more of these states of being a larger space opens filled with more possibilities.

Practice is only necessary to reach or sustain a rich expression. This occurs because of people’s lines, wounds, habits, and the Great Myths. In other words, there is often a lot of static. Each of these states when experienced and expressed provides tremendous access to new possibilities and the solving of very sticky and stuck problems that plague relationships and communities.

Why are we talking about the big picture?

So people can understand that what they believe shapes their experience and expression.

Big Picture ideas can either limit spaces for relationships or open spaces for relationships.

Just because you say you believe in something – what is important is what you cultivate. Cultivation is the result of belief and action in-relationship with one another.

Human relationships of all kinds thrive in open spaces that invite people to be themselves – to share their voices and express their gifts. This is true in friendships, marriages, partnerships, families, teams, communities, across communities and in societies.

What are desperately needed today are more open spaces that invite people to be themselves. When viewing the planet as a whole, spaces are narrowing and closing more than they are opening and expanding. This means more and more people are experiencing less possibilities.

Practice:

If you are interested in growth and healing then an important area to consider is what are my big picture ideas about being human, the nature of relationships and what is possible?

A second key question to ponder is given my big picture ideas what am I cultivating? Look around and examine the nature and qualities present or absent in your relationships.

Now based on this pondering what to you conclude? What do you see as the next step for yourself as it relates to the Big Picture?